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Neuroscientists, researchers, educators, and the general public now have access to Albert Einstein's brain via this new iPad app that will allow its users to examine the Nobel Prize-winning physicist's neuroanatomy as if they were sitting in front of a microscope. This app provides access to the Harvey Collection, from the National Museum of Health and Medicine, prepared by Dr. Thomas Harvey, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Albert Einstein. The collection includes microscopic neuroanatomical slides prepared from approximately 170 areas of Einstein's brain and brainstem. Users can explore these ultra-high-resolution microscopic slide images at a variety of magnification levels, extending from low magnification all the way to cellular detail, just like with a physical microscope, all from their own network-connected iPads.

About the Harvey Collection

Dr. Thomas Harvey was the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Albert Einstein at Princeton Hospital on April 18, 1955. Dr. Harvey removed the brain for study, segmented the brain into approximately 170 parts which were roughly grouped by the various lobes and brainstem, and then sectioned those parts into hundreds of microscope sections. These sections were mounted on microscope slides and stained to highlight both cellular structure and nerve conductive tissue. Harvey’s estate donated the collection to the National Museum of Health and Medicine in 2010. In the spring of 2012, the National Museum of Health + Medicine Chicago (NMHMChicago) obtained private funding support to begin digitizing this collection. This app makes available to the public the portion of the collection that has been digitized to date. Subsequent releases of this app will include additional materials as their digitization is completed.

All profits from the sale of the app will be used to support the Department of Defense’s National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland, as well as NMHM Chicago. Along with the release of this application, uncompressed versions of all of the Harvey Collection slide images that have been digitized in this project will be made available for free download via this site

Take a look at the Keepsayk scrapbook that we created about the project:

About National Museum of Health + Medicine Chicago

The National Museum of Health + Medicine Chicago is the first of what is planned to be a series of 501(c)3 public charity institutions around the country to act as satellites to the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland.

About the National Museum of Health and Medicine

The National Museum of Health and Medicine, a Department of Defense museum established in 1862 as the Army Medical Museum, inspires interest in and promotes the understanding of medicine—past, present, and future—with a special emphasis on tri-service American military medicine. NMHM is located at 2500 Linden Lane, Silver Spring, MD, 20910. For more information, visit NMHM online at www.medicalmuseum.mil.

About VScope

The VScope system, upon which this app is based, is a part of the AnatLab family of biomedical information applications developed by Eolas Technologies Inc., located in Tyler, TX, and is adapted for use by NMHM Chicago in conjunction with a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between Eolas Technologies Inc. and the National Museum of Health and Medicine.